UniverCity may not fall in the core of one of the city's quadrants, but it certainly isn't letting that stop it from getting on the development bandwagon in Burnaby.
The community that's been developing over the years next to Simon Fraser University has about 3,200 residents and is preparing for about 7,000 more.
Laura Brenton used to live in East Vancouver, near Commercial Drive, before she decided to make the move from just seeing the mountains to being on top of one.
"It's a bit of a change, but we really like it," Brenton said. "Sometimes we miss some of the restaurants, but it's really good."
Brenton has worked at SFU since 2005. She moved up to UniverCity with her partner and three daughters who are 15, 14 and six years old. Brenton's sister also lives three doors down with her husband and two children.
Burnaby Mountain is known for its miserable winter months and snow dumps, but Brenton and her family has not been too put out by the weather.
"I thought it would affect me more. I was a bit nervous about that when I moved in, in October," she said. "You don't socialize as much in the winter, as not everyone is out in the courtyard, but surprisingly it has not affected us in the winter."
Brenton's six-year-old daughter attends University Highlands Elementary School, while her teenagers take the bus to Burnaby Mountain Secondary.
"We only had two snow days this year when my kids couldn't make it to school - they wish we had more," she said.
While the draws of living in a city sometimes have Brenton missing her East Vancouver neighbourhood, she prefers the nightlife up on the mountain.
"Sometimes I miss the Commercial Drive area, but it's the best thing I've done for my girls," she said. "Instead of people yelling, we're hearing frogs at night (and) sometimes coyotes."
With the area slated for more development, Brenton said she hopes the plan includes the needs of growing families. Currently, her family rents a three-bedroom place that's a bit small for future needs.
"We want to stay up here, but with having teenagers it would be nicer to have bigger places," she said. "My only hope is the community does grow and grow for the fact that the families are expanding. It would be great to get a coop up here. East Van has a lot of co-ops, and the Forest Grove area has co-ops.
"It would be great to know if they could do something like that up here."
Brenton said her close-knit community, "great school", and lack of a work commute for her means she's likely to stay up on the mountain for as long as possible.
"Everyone watches out for each other," she added. "There's lots of street hockey, kids hanging out and playing outside. It's great.
"For the few days it's clear up here without clouds, the views down below are worth it."
Gordon Harris, president and CEO of SFU's Community Trust, said he's excited Burnaby council approved the next major phase of development, which will include 714 homes featured in lower buildings with some larger ground-oriented units, according to a media release.
"Our current residents have been asking for this kind of diversity in what we're building," Harris said in the release. "The new zoning also fulfills a promise that we made to the city and to our residents when we won approval for a higher-density, highrise mix in phase three. We effectively transferred some of the density from the phase four site into phase three, which meant that we could provide more, larger, family-oriented units than originally envisioned."
For more information, visit www.univercity.ca.
